Arabic Literature and Translation

Friday Films: ‘Miramar,’ Based on the Novel by Naguib Mahfouz

Every Friday, ArabLit suggests a new classic film-book combination — for you to watch and read — until we run out of steam about 20 weeks in:

This week, it’s the 1969 film Miramar, based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Naguib Mahfouz. A number of Mahfouz’s novels have been made into films; one of the more difficult to translate into film, Wedding Song, inspired a new screen adaptation airing this Ramadan.

Miramar is among Mahfouz’s strongest short novels. Set in Alexandria in the early 1960s, it’s described by the American University in Cairo Press’s Neil Hewison as such: “everybody must have their favorite Mahfouz novel, and this is mine. It is the story of Egypt and its Revolution, brilliantly told by four very different men staying in an old-fashioned pension in Alexandria, as they hover around the country girl who works there.”

The film stars Shadia, Yousef Wahbey, and Yousef Shabaan, and was directed by Kamal el-Sheikh, who also directed the adaptation of Mahfouz’s The Theif and the Dogs.